1 week ago
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Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images
Things are, really, pretty good at Anfield.
People were understandably cautious when laying out expectations for this year’s iteration of Liverpool Football Club. The first season of the post-Jurgen Klopp Era, it is reasonable for folks to want to ratchet expectations down, even allowing that the club Arne Slot inherited won one trophy and were in contention for three others late into their respective competitions.
Top Four in the Premier League. Advancement into the knock-out rounds in the Champions League. Advancing of any level in the League and FA cups. Not the ambitions of one of the top 5 sides in all of Europe, per se. But they certainly aren’t nothing. They are, to a word, the expectations of a team that would have to endure the challenge of replacing an iconic manager in the club’s history and one of the recognized best managers of all time.
And yet, with three and a half months in this campaign done and dusted, Liverpool find themselves sat atop both the Premier League and Champions League tables. In the Premier League, Liverpool have managed to build 5 and 9 point leads over pre-season title favorites Manchester City and Arsenal, respectively. To say that Liverpool are overachieving does not feel like a stretch, even given the generally lofty expectations that the fan base holds.
At a work event earlier in the week, a colleague noticed me wearing a Liverpool kit and remarked, “Ah, it’s a pretty good season to be a Liverpool supporter.” I responded that any season is a good time to be one.
Both statements are obviously true: this season in particular we are being treated to a brand of football that both feels familiar and yet has added an extra wrinkle that has thus far stymied nearly every single opponent. It is also true that being a fan of this great club, even in the difficult moments, can sometimes feel like a privilege. Mostly because the history of this club - both on but especially off the pitch - feels like a gift.
It’s not often that you encounter a club that can make my pride swell, as someone from a city that, like Liverpool, had been abandoned in the name of “austerity.” Whose residents were often blamed for the failures of a government that was hostile to those same people. Whose resilience has been marked by a refusal to bend in the fight for justice, forcing that moral arch to bend towards them and the families of the 97.
I remarked last week that I was seeking any joy possible from Liverpool given the state of my corner of the world. I am drawing now from the thing that pulled me into the club’s orbit: a spark of resistance from a politics that is inarguably cruel and dehumanizing. I am once more reminded that it is always a good time to be a Liverpool fan; even in - and especially in - that hard times.
